My daughter Charlotte started feeling sick Friday. As I left for the grocery store to fill up on supplies for my sourdough bread boot camp workshop, she asked me to bring her back sorbet, or sherbet or some other frozen dessert other than ice cream to soothe her throat. I said I would look.
In the frozen dessert aisle, I found a few things that matched her criteria—she really likes lemon sorbet—but most of them were packaged in plastic-lined cardboard tubs and one brand came in a hard plastic jar, shrink wrapped in yet more plastic. I pictured albatrosses feeding plastic to their young as I fed mine any of these sorbets.
But Charlotte really wanted a frozen treat. What a dilemma! I walked back and forth in that freezer aisle, pondering what to do. I could just buy the sorbet…These were special circumstances after all…I shouldn’t be so OCD…
You may judge me as a cruel, crazed, zero-waste zealot. My ill child asks for one little thing and I won’t buy it for her.
As I gazed at tub after tub, I thought to myself, “If only I had a solution to fulfill Charlotte’s request for sorbet, preferably lemon, while avoiding plastic…”
“If I don’t buy the lemon sorbet, I disappoint my daughter. If I do buy it, I am a fraud! I need a sign to show me the way!”
To combat the iciness sorbets will include either alcohol or a lot of sugar. If you are confident that you are freezing your mixture as much as you should then perhaps you could reduce the sugar or alcohol in the recipe to encourage solidification.
However, the amount of sugar in the sorbet will also affect the texture and how firmly the sorbet freezes. Nigellas recipe has a high ratio of sugar to fruit and this is intentional, so that the sorbet remains soft even when frozen. For a firmer sorbet the sugar would need to be reduced and usually you would have around ⅓ of the amount of sugar vs fruit, though we have not tried this proportion for the redcurrant sorbet. Unfortunately, re-churning a sorbet wont make it any firmer but you need to leave it for at least 3 hours in the freezer for it to firm up more, and preferably overnight.
I made the Redcurrant Sorbet without alcohol. And I followed the instructions for the ice cream maker to prepare a fruit sorbet. I transferred the sorbet from the machine to the freezer to freeze it. After a few hours, I noted that it is on the soft side. Can the soft sorbet be returned to the ice cream maker for further churning and then refreezing?
As I gazed at tub after tub, I thought to myself, “If only I had a solution to fulfill Charlotte’s request for sorbet, preferably lemon, while avoiding plastic…”
My daughter Charlotte started feeling sick Friday. As I left for the grocery store to fill up on supplies for my sourdough bread boot camp workshop, she asked me to bring her back sorbet, or sherbet or some other frozen dessert other than ice cream to soothe her throat. I said I would look.
“If I don’t buy the lemon sorbet, I disappoint my daughter. If I do buy it, I am a fraud! I need a sign to show me the way!”
In the frozen dessert aisle, I found a few things that matched her criteria—she really likes lemon sorbet—but most of them were packaged in plastic-lined cardboard tubs and one brand came in a hard plastic jar, shrink wrapped in yet more plastic. I pictured albatrosses feeding plastic to their young as I fed mine any of these sorbets.
If you have an ice cream maker, use that to make this sorbet. If you don’t have one, put a metal or glass dish in the freezer to chill. Follow the directions below to make the sorbet mixture, pull out the chilled dish and pour in the prepped, cooled ingredients. Take the dish out every half hour or so and give the sorbet in progress a good whisk. It will be frozen in about four hours.
Don’t make these Ninja Creami MISTAKES!
FAQ
Why is my sorbet not freezing?
Why is sorbet not setting?
Why is my homemade sorbet icy?
How do you fix ice cream that won’t freeze?
Can you freeze lemon sorbet?
Here are some with plenty of lemony goodness: Lemon sorbet is the perfect no-bake summer dessert. It’s cool, slushy, and refreshing. Plus, it’s absolutely brimming with bright, zingy lemon flavor. Freeze the ice cream maker bowl for 8 hours or overnight. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and water over medium heat.
How long do lemons stay fresh in the refrigerator?
Whole or uncut lemons generally last for 2 to 3 weeks in the fridge when it is properly stored, but could last up to 4 weeks. You can generally tell when fruits begin to expire by the skin becoming wrinkly and shrunken.
Can you freeze sorbet if you don’t know the sugar content?
Okay, let’s back up a bit. If you don’t know the exact sugar content of your fruit, the best thing you can do is play it safe. A sugar concentration between 20% to 30% will generally produce a scoopable, creamy sorbet.* Add less and your sorbet is too icy to scoop; add more and it may never freeze.
Why does sorbet ice cream have a lower freezing point?
In ice cream, a combination of fat, protein, and sugar all influences ice cream’s texture, but in sorbet sugar is the big fish. When you dissolve sugar in water you get a syrup with a lower freezing point than water alone, and the sweeter a syrup is (i.e. the higher the concentration of sugar), the lower the freezing point becomes.